On Friday, March 3, 2017, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services ("USCIS") held a public stakeholder engagement in Washington, D.C. Some important announcements were made, which we summarize below:
Continued Increase in Popularity of EB-5 Visas
In the period between October 2016 and December 2016, the...
Feb 10, 2017
On February 9, 2017, the federal Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision refusing to lift the block on President Trump’s Executive Order banning persons from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals...
January 30, 2017
On Friday, January 27th, 2017, President Trump issued an executive order which has implemented an immediately effective travel ban on citizens of the following seven designated countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for a period of ninety (90) days. This...
January 11, 2017
After months of waiting, U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) finally released the full text of the proposed EB-5 regulations (NPRM) on Jan. 12, 2017.
The key details of the proposed rule would significantly change the EB-5 regional center program:
USCIS proposes to increase...
The U.S. Department of State ("DOS") just released the January 2017 visa bulletin. Certain categories have move forward, including a two-week jump for the EB-5 category final action date for petitioners from the People's Republic of China.
USCIS has not yet advised whether it will accept...
The Senate passed a stopgap spending bill, 63-36, to avoid a government shutdown at midnight on Friday, December 9, 2016. The bill, which will fund the government through April 28 of next year, heads to the president after a group of Senate Democrats dropped their insistence on a longer extension of coal miners' health benefits.
On the evening of Tuesday, December 6, 2016, the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress make public its draft law (known as a “bill”) to extend the EB-5 Regional Center program without changes until April 28, 2017.
On November 30, 2016, USCIS released a draft EB-5 Policy Manual. The draft EB-5 Policy Manual is a compendium and restatement of EB-5 law and USCIS EB-5 policy. USCIS has provided a very short comment period. Comments are due by December 14, 2016. We provide a copy of the USCIS email notice below. I.A. Donoso & Associates will be analyzing and commenting on this draft EB-5 Policy Manual, and will provide further updates as soon as additional information is available.
The U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives passed a Continuing Resolution to fund the government through Dec. 9 in a series of three votes on Wednesday, Sept. 28.